PaulMoore: I have just found a scroll of artifact creation. From what I can discover, its effect depends on the item it is cast on, and I could waste it by selecting the wrong item. However, I can't find a good description of what works well and what doesn't. I'm playing a Beorning, so my available slots are limited (no boots, shield, gloves).

The most likely candidates in my current inventory are:

I could also go on a speculative trip to a dungeon town (Old Forest level 19) which has a Jeweller. But that would cost serious cash from the thunderlords, so I don't want to do it unless there's a reasonable chance it's worth it.

Any suggestions?

NerdanelVampire: Conguratulations on your spectacular find! Nowadays the scroll needs to be read on a basic item that does not have an ego, so your robe is right out. You want to read the scroll on an item that is very good in itself so that you would consider wearing it without any scroll. Consider a digger or a suitable piece of jewelry. Randart lightsources tend to be rather pathetic and artifacts not too hard to find for that slot.

If you are a warrior type the damage ring would probably be my favorite on the list, but you can get better than that. Slaying, speed, and attack speed are only some examples. Note however that the pval of an item will be recalculated if it is made an artifact so a ring of +20 to speed may not give that much as an artifact.

Since the scroll is extremely rare you may want to delay reading it until you find a good enough base item (if you think you can survive, that is). The jewelry shop is a very good idea. You can save money if you walk there the long way. A particularly lucky character of mine found a scroll of artifact creation in the late part of the early game and read it on a balance dragon scale mail she got from a dungeon shop she had found a while ago. She ended up wearing the armor through the whole game to victory.

MariAi: You should probably be careful with the lantern anyway. I have a vague memory of trying to use artifact creation on a light source and having it fail completely.

KhymChanur: Looking at the 2.3 source code, an Scroll of Artfiact Creation can only work on armor, weapons, rings, amulets, and digging equipment, and then only if it has no egos. So no you, can't use it on a lite source, or on a trapping kit, climbing kit, or instrument.

I think that when it prompts you for "which item to use", it should only list items that it can accept, so you don't lose it by picking something that won't work.

ElIott: Ditto to Maylith's comment about pvals.

Because of that, Rings of Speed are really bad choices as they almost invariably end up as indestructable rings of speed with no extra powers. Quite the waste. I seem to recall a conversation about this once before, and the answer was that Power Dragon Scalemail is the best thing to read it on, but most people don't have access to that, so go with a digger instead. If a digger isn't needed for whatever reason, then other good choices would be Maylith's Balance Dragon Scalemail (Law, Chaos, and Multi-hued are generaly a waste, because while Law and Chaos give some high resists, they only give 2 each, and while Multi-hued covers a bunch, rBase and rPoison really aren't hard enough to find to warrant it), a good elven cloak, or, as a fallback, a good weapon (an axemaster would be pretty excited to read a scroll of create artifact on a nice slaughter axe, for example, and archers can get good results with launchers, but don't bother with ammo). Anyone know how create artifact would work on Dragon Helms or Shields? I've found a couple of non-ego, non-artifact dragon shields with 7+ resists each. If they were turned into artifacts, would they just become indestructable, or would they be likely to gain additional powers?

PaulMoore: Thanks for the suggestions. As a Beorning, a digger isn't an option, but I did find a Dragon Hunter shop in the Old Forest, so a decent Dragon Scale Mail is probably the thing to go for. Now all I need to do is to muster up the cash. Frankly, not too hard as I don't use weapons, so I've picked up a lot of neat stuff to sell. If only I could find a shop that didn't give me really bad prices - my CHA is 9, so I feel fairly ripped off that they put things up for sale at 5 times what they gave me for them. Oh, well, such is the life of a bear :-(

PaulMoore: Hmm, the Dragon hunter has quite a nice artifact red DSM - Immunity to Electricity & Cold, plus flying. And the Jeweller has a ring of extra attacks (+1). So I'm considering using the scroll on the ring and buying the DSM. I might go source-diving to check the odds...

PaulMoore: Well, that was a bit of an anticlimax :-( 

The Ring called 'Clawslicer' (+1 attack)
 It increases your attack speed by 1.  It provides resistance 
 to nether and nexus.  It allows you to see invisible monsters.  It
 speeds your regenerative powers.  It cannot be harmed by acid, cold,
 lightning or fire.  
 You made it yourself.

I was hoping for an increase in attack speed, based on the pval being recalculated. And I already have the high resists and SI. So it gained regeneration for me.

Ah, well, it's a scroll of artifact creation, not a scroll of get-something-that-wins-the-game-for-you. I'll just have to go back to picking up loot the hard way :-)

ElIott: Sorry the results weren't better, but I think you made the right choice given your options. Next time, you could wait for a +3 ring of Extra attacks, or maybe go for a nice ring of slaying. However, when you get down to it, since you already had most resists covered, and probably good stats, as well, I'm not sure how much you really needed...

NerdanelVampire: My second scroll of artifact creation (dropped by Morgoth himself, so it didn't matter that much) I read on the first digger I found. The orcish pick's pval got decreased in the process. I don't know how common this is.

GrootheWanderer: I usually use them either on diggers or elven cloaks. I used one on a nice multiple resist dragon shield once and it ended up sustaining and increasing a couple stats and, IIRC, adding a resist and one elemental immunity. That was a nice shield. Also, I think I used one on a flipped amulet of Doom once and got some resistances added to it. That worked well also. Usually, though, if you have a digger slot that is your best bet as artifact diggers are so hard to come by. Also, I have heard that elven boots are quite nice to turn into artifacts.

GreyCat: What on earth are "elven boots"? Is that from some module other than ToME?

NeilStevens: Rare boot type in ToME. In my experience rarer than the cloaks even.

ElIott: Indeed. They typically give +Speed and Stealth (and maybe a 3rd thing. I forget), and can often have an additional random power (telepathy seems to come up a lot for me). I only find a pair 1/3 of the time with characters who make it to the late game, so they're quite rare. Finding a pair with +4 speed and stealth, plus telepathy, and turning it into an artifact, would be wonderful.

GreyCat: Oh... no wonder I didn't see it as a base item type! It's an ego type. Therefore it's ineligible for artifact creation.

Rawel: The scroll of artifact creation does not always recalculate the Pval. If i'm right it doesn't do so in exactly the cases when it doesn't add any new Pval dependent flags. So if you use it on a ring of speed (+13) it will not add any pval dependent flags but it will also keep the ring at +13. I think the breaking point is +6/+7 but i might be wrong.

Metheus: I'm thinking Power Dragon Scale Mail might not be a great option. I was lucky enough to get both items, but when I read it, the PDSM didn't change at all. Maybe it tried to add resistances that were already there? Anyway, next time I'll use a digger for sure.

IngeborgNorden: Is there a way to make more item types (e.g., lights and instruments) eligible for randart status, short of hacking the source code? I'd like a wider range of choices in my modules.

DarkGod: Given that there is no randart code currently and any such implementation would be in lua, I would suppose no ;)

IngeborgNorden: *sigh* I guess I'll have to either (a) figure out how to Luafy the old randart code or (b) wait for a much better coder to handle it. (Don't worry--even though you are MUCH better at coding than me, I didn't have you in mind!)

DarkGod: Yes I'm afraid I have more pressing matters at hands, like err .. getting out of alpha :)

GeneralDiscussion/Scroll of Artifact Creation (last edited 2006-09-30 00:03:32 by DarkGod)